Always with You (WIth You Trilogy) (3 page)

“Are you okay, Jason?” I asked, turning to face him.

“You’re asking me?” He asked incredulously.

“Yes, I am,” I grinned. “So answer the question.”

I saw his lips quirk up slightly. “Yes boss,” he mumbled. “I’m okay. Just a little overwhelmed.”

“Overwhelmed?” I frowned, stroking his jaw gently. He had a little more stubble than usual and I could tell he hadn’t slept well.

“I thought I’d lost you, baby. We all did,” Jason whispered, his eyes closed as if he was afraid to voice these thoughts.

“But you didn’t,” I tried to smile but I knew I wasn’t convincing because I’d been terrified I’d lost
them too. “I’m here now.”

Jason held me tight and we remained in our silent embrace a while longer. Nothing needed to be said because neither of us could give the other any assurances. All we could do was be there for each other in the face of the unknown.

Monday, June 24th 2013

“Can I borrow your phone?” I asked Jason once I’d put a batch of cookies into the oven.

“It’s dead, sorry,” he cringed. “I was in a bit of a rush to get to the hospital, I didn’t take my charger.”

“Oh, okay,” I frowned. “Maybe you should call Ben then. Let him know where you’ve been.”

Jason nodded and disappeared into the hallway to do just that. I busied myself with cleaning up the dishes from baking.

“You can borrow mine, Jelly,” Jake offered from the island. “If you promise me first dibs on the biscuits.”

“Yeah, ‘cause that’ll go down well with the others,” I scoffed, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” he sighed, sliding his phone across the island to me.

I smiled at him appreciatively before typing in the number and dialling anxiousl
y. I should have made this call as soon as I’d regained consciousness but I’d been so tired.

“Jake?” He answered on the first ring.

I couldn’t blame him for sounding confused. I doubted Jake rang him very often. “Hi, Alex. It’s me,” I smiled.

There was an awkward silence on the line and I frowned. Alex was anything but silent. I thought he’d be delighted to hear from me considering what had happened the last time we saw each other.

“Hello?” I asked when the silence stretched.

“I’m here,” he replied quietly. “I just wasn’t expecting you to call.”

“Well I am,” I said, trying to sound cheerful.

He didn’t sound like himself at all and it worried
me.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come over. I figured you’d be off work soon.”

“Eh,” he hedged. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure,” I laughed. “I’ve spent the last two days sleeping and being babied. I could do with a bit of Alex-drama.”

“I doubt your brothers will want me there, Jelly,” he said awkwardly.

“Since when have you let them stop you?” I frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he answered quickly. “I’ll be there in a bit.” There was another awkward silence before he spoke again. “Jelly?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really glad you’re okay.”

He hung up and I frowned. That had not gone at all as I’d been expecting. I couldn’t wait to see Alex. I was so relieved that they hadn’t taken him as well. I wouldn’t have wished that ordeal on anyone.

“What’s wrong, Jamie?” Jason asked, strolling back into the kitchen with a look of concern on his face as he studied mine.

“Alex was kind of off with me,” I pouted. “Not himself at all.”

“Yeah…” Jake interjected shiftily. “You probably have the twins to thank for that.” He fidgeted in his chair and looked a little uncomfortable as I passed his phone back.

“Have us to thank for what?”
The twins grinned, joining us in the kitchen and making a beeline for the bowl that I’d had the biscuit dough in.

“Jelly just called Alex,” Jake explained, giving the twins a meaningful look.

Their faces both fell immediately. I couldn’t decide if they looked contrite or mortified.

“Shit,” Rick groaned.

“We’re sorry, Jelly,” Danny winced. “We didn’t mean it. We were just worried about you.”

“What did you do?” I asked, taking a cautious step back to where Jason was standing.

“Jelly, honest, we didn’t-” Rick started but I cut him off with an angry wave of my hand.

Danny sighed resolutely before talking. “We got there first,” he explained. “Ian sent round texts and explained what he’d heard. We were already in town answering a call. We didn’t know much.”

I listened to him with my eyes narrowed because I suspected I wouldn’t like what he was going to say. Jason held on to my hand tightly, providing physical and emotional support.

“We were worried about you, Jelly. All we knew was that they’d taken you and Alex had gotten away without a scratch. We were just scared for you,” Rick continued.

“Tell me you didn’t have a go at him?” I accused, my temper already simmering.

Their guilty looks told me all I needed to know and I felt myself pushing towards them. Jason reluctantly let go of my hand as I stood in front of them. For the first time in my life, I didn’t care that they were bigger
, or stronger, or that there were two of them. I was carrying enough repressed anger to make me into a successful super villain.

“You
morons!” I screamed. “There were two of them and they had guns! What the hell did you expect him to do? He could have gotten killed and how would that have helped me? If he hadn’t gotten away then you might not have found out what had happened for hours. If it wasn’t for Alex, I might not be here right now!”

The twins shrunk back looking suitably chastised but that wasn’t enough. I’d
never ever wanted to hurt my brothers and I’d never wished anything bad upon them but they were testing my limits.

I’d shouted too much and my head was throbbing again in response. I felt myself grow slightly dizzy as I glared at
my idiot brothers.

“Easy, baby,” Jason soothed, taking me gently by the shoulders and easing me away from the twins to sit on a stool. He handed me a glass of water and one of the pain tablets the doctors had given me because, as usual, he knew what I needed.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, still shooting daggers at the twins.

They hovered awkwardly and I sipped at my water whilst I contemplated just how mad at them I was. I figured denying them access to my baked goods would be a good punishment to begin with but it didn’t nearly feel like enough.

They promised they’d apologise and make it up to him and when he arrived they did just that. Alex seemed a little uncertain and hovered on the threshold a while until I slid off my seat to give him a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Jellybaby,” he whispered in my ear. “I should never have let them take you.” He trembled a little as I hugged him so I squeezed him tighter.

I tried to reassure him that I didn’t blame him. I gave him the same speech I’d just given my brothers, but a little gentler. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Alex would feel guilty for not trying to help me.

“You saved me by getting away, Alex,” I reassured him once he finally stopped shaking.

As he pulled away, I could see how haunted he looked and it was obvious he hadn’t been handling the situation well which just made me angrier with the twins.

“We’re really sorry, Alex,” Danny said genuinely. “We were just venting, we shouldn’t have said any of that shit.”

Alex shrugged, obviously uncomfortable with the whole thing.

“They’ll do anything they can to make it up to you,” I assured him. “Won’t you?” I nailed them with my angry glare again and they both nodded enthusiastically.
Oh, how the tables have turned.
I never thought I’d see my brothers taking orders from me, although the fact that they knew they’d messed up probably had a lot to do with it.

“Fuck yeah we will!” Danny declared.

“Anything,” Rick nodded. “You want to bathe in ice cream, you got it.”

“Hell, we’ll even pose naked for your own priva
te fireman calendar if that gets Jelly off our backs,” Danny wiggled his eyebrows.

“Gross!” I protested. I was still furious with them but Danny’s stupid cocky sense of humour had me fighting really hard not to smile. I turned around to get the
biscuits out of the oven so my stupid, traitor mouth wouldn’t give me away.

“There’d be no point
both
of you posing naked,” Alex grinned, sounding a lot more like himself with a sing song lilt in his voice. “You’re
twins
.”

“So?” Danny frowned.

“
Identical
twins,” Alex stressed.

“Not in every way,” Danny wiggled his eyebrows again.

“I’d bet anything his gonads are lacking,” Rick cut in. “He got kicked in the balls way more than I did when we were kids.”

“That’s bullshit!” Danny shoved Rick. “Girls like me better and you know it.”

“You’re talking out of your arse! Remember that lass at the gym last month?” Rick shoved him back.

“Cut it out!” I sighed, throwing an oven glove at them. My head still hurt and they were making it worse.

“Fine,” they sighed, hitting each other a final time for good measure.

“Alex can sort this out once and for all. Drop trou,” Danny ordered Rick, already moving to pull his own jeans down.

“Wait!” Alex protested, giggling madly. “Dammit, I would have happily measured a few months ago,” he pouted. “I doubt Rab would appreciate it though.”

Danny grinned and pulled his jeans back up, winking at Alex.

“There is one thing you could do though,” Alex said hopefully.

“What’s that?” Rick asked looking encouraged at the prospect of setting things right.

“Hook me up with gym membership.”

“Consider it done,” Rick nodded enthusiastically.

Alex beamed happily and I raised my eyebrow at him. Alex was not the gym-going kind; he hated exercise with a passion.

“Don’t look at me like that!” He blushed. “I’m having a hard time keeping up with Rab. I had no idea muscle was directly proportionate to stamina.”

I snorted with laughter and had to cling onto Jason for support so I didn’t fall off my chair. I agreed with him whole-heartedly but I doubted my brothers would want to know that and I wasn’t quite ready to let them go back to bossing me around and telling me off just yet.

Alex was back to himself after that and I hoped he truly had forgiven himself. He didn’t ask
for details about what had happened and I didn’t offer any information. He was treating me like normal and he was the only one. I didn’t want to change that.

Alex’ normality helped me forget in a way only a true friend could and it was hard to focus on the negative when I was surrounded by so many people who meant so much to me.

Tuesday, 25th June 2013

As Karl and Ian came through the front door the following day, everyone relaxed to some degree. It wasn’t that we were worried about them, we just all wanted answers and Ian seemed to be the one who could provide them.

Elise had spent the day at the house with us. Karl said it was because he thought it’d be nice for her to have some help and company but I suspected he didn’t want her to be alone with everything that was happening.

I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready and I poured them a cup of coffee each when I heard them come in because I suspected that it had been a long day.

“Cheers, Jelly,” Karl smiled as I handed him his cup after he kissed both Elise and her swollen tummy. It seemed pregnancy had softened Karl somewhat. He usually avoided too much PDA in front of my brothers but the more Elise’s belly had grown, the less he seemed to care about what my brothers thought.

“How was your day?” I asked Ian once he had his coffee and biscuits in hand.

He shrugged and slouched o
nto a stool. I got the message and let him have some space. Everybody seemed to be hovering in the kitchen or adjoining dining room and I suspected they all wanted to know if there was any news as much as I did but we all knew better than to push Ian. Especially before he’d had his biscuit fix.

Ian fished a phone out of his pocket and slid it across the island to me. It was much nicer looking than my old phone and I smiled appreciatively.

“I’ve put you on contract this time,” he explained. “Unlimited calls and texts, so I expect to be able to reach you at all times.”

“Thanks,” I nodded, not meeting his eyes because, although I was grateful, I still felt like a puppy on a leash. I appreciate
d it considering the circumstances but I wondered if he’d change his attitude once all the drama was over.

The rest of the family seemed to have picked up on the fact that Ian was talking and zoned in on the kitchen island.

“Any news, E?” Matt asked, resting his hand on my shoulder.

“We got the third guy,” he shrugged. He didn’t look pleased and that struck me as odd.
Surely he should be happy that none of the men who had kidnapped me can do so again?

“Oh?” Elise prompted hopefully.

“Dead,” Ian shook his head dismissively. “Car crash early this morning.”

“Seems like a bit of a coincidence,”
Matt frowned.

“Exactly,” Ian nodded. “Got a DNA match to evidence left in the van and
at the warehouse, so it’s definitely the same guy. A task force from MI5 have been assigned to the case.”

“MI5?” Jason frowned. “I thought they dealt with domestic terrorist threats?”

Ian shot Jason a look that would have had me shutting up but Jason either hadn’t learnt Ian’s meaningful glares or simply didn’t give a crap because he continued.

“What the hell has that got to do with an abduction?”

“Maybe nothing,” Ian glowered. “Better safe than sorry.”

I could tell Jason wasn’t satisfied with Ian’s answer and had a million more questions but I squeezed his hand gently and relied on his psychic abilities to tell him that he shouldn’t push
for more. It must have been hard for Ian, maybe more for him than any of the rest of us, because he felt responsible and couldn’t do anything about it. I was sure that he would tell us as much as he was able and I didn’t want him to get pissed off with us for asking too many questions.

“From what we can tell, the three of them were just hired
hands. All of them had a history,” Ian sighed.

“But they’re all dead now, right?” Jake
prompted.

“Which is no use to us,” Ian frowned. “Just because they’re dead doesn’t mean whoever did this can’t hire someone else.”

My head was starting to throb again from trying to take in all this information. I’d naively thought it was all over once I’d woken up in the hospital bed and realised I was safe. I reached for my tablets and took one but immediately wished I hadn’t because of the uncomfortable expressions my brothers wore. I shouldn’t have drawn attention to the fact that I was hurting. It made them all feel guilty.

“Any way to tell who paid them?” Karl prompted, his face locked in a stern expression.

“The payment was made from an account in Switzerland and we’re having to cut through a lot of international, bureaucratic, red tape. As far as we can tell the money came from a group in the UK with ties to a whole catalogue of illegal activity, not least of which is selling arms to terrorist organisations,” Ian grimaced.

“So it’s just a waiting game until we find out more?” Karl frowned.

“’Fraid so,” Ian nodded grimly. “There’s nothing more I can tell you for now.” He looked remorseful and I suspected he wished he could tell us something that would put us at ease. I didn’t envy the situation he was in.

The atmosphere in the kitchen grew suddenly
uncomfortable. Silence washed over us in a chilling wave and I assumed everyone was deep in thought, just as I was. I glanced at Elise and it killed me to see the worry on her face. She didn’t need the stress on top of the pregnancy. If she was too stressed then she might get ill and that might not be good for her or the baby.
I don’t want to think about that.

“Dinner’s ready,” I smiled and tried my best to sound cheery. “Will somebody help me lay the table?”

They all seemed relieved to have something else to think about and the silence was exchanged for bustling activity as everybody tried to help at once. Ian hopped off his chair and pressed a brisk kiss to my forehead, which I knew was his version of an apology, both for the situation and not being able to fix it. I smiled reassuringly back and set about getting the food out of the oven.

“This sucks,” I sighed to Jason as we climbed into bed together later that night.

“What sucks, baby?” He asked, scooping me up so I could lie on top of him.

“You’re all treating me different
ly,” I pouted. He and my brothers had been pussyfooting around me as if they were scared I would have a mental breakdown at any moment.

Jason sighed and began running his fingers through my hair. “Can you blame us, Jamie?” He whispered. “It was horrible.”

I tensed up and squeezed him tightly. It had been horrible for me too but I could still empathise with what they’d been through.

“I know it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for you,
I didn’t mean to sound like an ass,” he said quickly. “But you should have seen your brothers, Jamie. If I ever doubted how much they cared about you, then I was wrong. They were distraught. We all were.”

“I’m safe now,” I whispered, trying to reassure him. His voice sounded so pained and it killed me that he’d been put through all that because of me. “I’m scared as well, Jason,” I admitted, closing my eyes tight because I was sick of crying. “But I don’t want all this to change things. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every few seconds
and I don’t want you to feel like you have to protect me constantly.”

“We need to be on our guard, Jamie,” he sighed, still holding me close to him. “Just for a bit, until we know more. Maybe Ian will
get some more info soon.”

“Yeah… Ian,” I sighed. “I don’t understand what
his job has to do all this.”

“What does he do
exactly?”

“No idea,” I shook my head. “We always joked that he was like James Bond, but we were only kidding around. Now I’m not so sure.”

“I thought he was in the army,” Jason said.

“He is. The
SAS. He stopped telling us about his tours of duty after a few years. He was pretty young when he was selected. Granddad was crazy proud.”

“Special Forces,” Jason nodded. “Don’t see how that could effect your family though.”

I shrugged. I didn’t either but Ian obviously suspected something and his gut instincts were usually spot on. I trusted him to handle the situation for now. I just hoped he didn’t blame himself too much. I sometimes worried Ian would explode from stress. He didn’t show it very often but he carried the world on his shoulders.

He’d been the effective head of the family for thirteen years and, in that role, he’d taken responsibility for all of us. All of our successes were his successes. Our failures were his failures. That was why he always took everything so personally. If we let ourselves down then we let him down, and worse, we let the family down.
The family our parents had given us and Ian had kept together.

This sense of responsibility was
, in part, the reason why he felt the need to protect us. I guess he thought he owed it to Mum and Dad to keep us all safe and well behaved. What he never realised was that we needed him as a big brother more than we needed him as a protector.

I took a deep breath and tried to push all these thoughts away. The past few days had been too much. I refused to let it affect me any more. I wanted to forget and I knew just how to do that.

“Jamie…” Jason said cautiously as I began slowly sliding down him, trailing kisses down his body.

I ignored him and continued on, pausing at his nipple to tease him with my tongue. The familiar
buzz of energy charged through my lips and invigorated my every nerve ending. His heat warmed my skin as it pressed against me and ignited my senses. Jason groaned as I continued downwards, letting my nails graze his skin gently.

“Jamie…” he groaned again. “You should be resting.”

I knew he was trying to castigate me but he didn’t sound very enthusiastic and the hard length in my hand wasn’t very convincing either.

“Please, Jason,” I pleaded, looking into the depth
s of his blue-green eyes, which were twinkling in the moonlight shining through the bedroom window.

“Fuck,” he
exhaled as I tightened my grip around him. “Dammit, Jamie. I’m really not good at saying no to you.”

He sat up so that we were eye-to-
eye and pulled me into a kiss, his hands travelled up my back, onto my neck and I winced as they brushed against the bandages on the back of my head. It was still a little sore where they’d put a few stitches in.

“Shit, sorry,” Jason
winced, immediately withdrawing from me and flopping back down onto the bed.

“Jason,” I pouted. “It’s fine, honestly.”

He sighed deeply and gently grabbed my wrists as I tried to get his interest back to playtime. “We shouldn’t, Jamie.”

I frowned as he helped me off of him
and rolled over onto his front, clearly denying me access. This wasn’t going to plan. I knew Jason was doing what he thought was best for me but I was
not
happy.

“Jason,” I pouted again. “I want you.”

“I know,” he grinned, pushing himself up off the bed slightly to look up at me. “But you need to take it easy, Jamie.”

“You don’t get to decide that for me, Jason,” I said softly. I was
one hundred percent serious but I didn’t want him to take offence.

“The hell I don’t, Jamie,” he growled protectively. “You’re mine. I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe and look after you.
Even if it means I get blue balls for a while.”

“Then look after me,” I whispered brushing my fingers over his cheek gently.

“Jamie…” Jason growled again.

I could see the tortured look on his face and I knew it was taking every ounce of self-control he had to say no to me. I loved tha
t he wanted to keep me safe but I loved that it was so hard for him to keep his hands off me even more.

“Fine,” I sulked when he rebuffed my attentions again. I wasn’t happy about it, but if he was going to deny me then I was going to have my revenge. “Suit yourself. But, Jason?”

“Yeah, Jamie?” He answered, looking a little relieved that I’d backed off.

“I want to come,” I blushed. I always blushed.

“I know,” he chuckled, pushing up to kiss me chastely on the lips. “I’ll make it up to you soon, baby, I promise.”

“No,” I shook my head petulantly.

“No?” He raised his eyebrow at me.

“No,” I repeated. “I want to come now.” I relaxed back onto the bed and pushed the cover off me. I wanted to make sure he could see
what I was about to do.

“What are you doing, Jamie?” He asked huskily.

I let my actions speak for me as I slowly edged my hand down over my abdomen. I spread my legs as I reached the curls at the apex of my thighs and let my fingers trail slowly down my leg. I wasn’t sure if I was confident enough to actually go through with it and I was hoping Jason wouldn’t call my bluff.

“Jamie,” Jason prompted again, his voice a low growl of carnal promise.

“I want to come, Jason,” I repeated. “And if you won’t give me what I want, I’ll have to get it myself.” I closed my eyes as my cheeks burned. I was coming off as way more confident than I felt and I hoped Jason was buying it. He could usually read me like an open book but I was hoping his vision would be clouded by the lust that I could see dancing behind his darkened eyes.